FILM OF THE WEEK

INTERSTELLAR (12A, 150 mins)

Sci-Fi/Action/Thriller/Romance. Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Wes Bentley, David Gyasi, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Timothee Chalamet, Mackenzie Foy, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn and the voice of Bill Irwin. Director: Christopher Nolan. Released: November 7 (UK & Ireland)

Writer-director Christopher Nolan shoots for the stars with a futuristic thriller, co-written with his brother Jonathan, about mankind's search beyond this galaxy for a new home to replace a dying planet earth.

Epic in scope and wildly ambitious, Interstellar doesn't quite achieve its bold vision of a love story between a father and daughter set against the vast backdrop of mankind's final roll of the dice to avoid extinction.

However, even when this grand futuristic adventure malfunctions, it's a deeply engrossing meditation on the ties that bind and the endurance of those emotional bonds across space and time.

Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema have captured some of the most breathtaking vistas including our first glimpses of a black hole or wormhole on large-format IMAX film.

These sequences pack a mighty visual punch and powerfully convey how tiny and seemingly insignificant we are on our third rock from the sun.

Composer Hans Zimmer, who collaborated with the London-born director on The Dark Knight trilogy, provides another bombastic orchestral score to complement the majestic imagery.

Planet earth is dying: great dust clouds sweep across agricultural plains, ruining crops and making it impossible to breathe comfortably without face masks.

"We used to look up and wonder about our place in the stars. Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt," laments Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former test pilot, who toils the parched soil with his 15-year-old son Tom (Timothee Chalamet) and 10-year-old daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy).

Cooper answers a call from Professor Brand (Michael Caine) to lead a mission to locate a new planet capable of sustaining human life.

"We're not meant to save the world. We're meant to leave it," explains Brand, whose scientist daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway) will be part of the four-strong crew along with astrophysicist Romilly (David Gyasi) and pilot Doyle (Wes Bentley).

Leaving his brood in the care of his father-in-law (John Lithgow), Cooper undertakes the most important mission in human history, knowing that failure would mean certain death for the people he loves.

Interstellar retains a tight focus on the characters without sacrificing the adrenaline-pumping thrills that fans expect from director Nolan.

Two talking military machines called TARS (voiced by Bill Irwin) and CASE are a marvel of mechanical puppeteering and inject much needed humour.

"I have a discretion setting," deadpans TARS in response to a request from Cooper to disclose sensitive information.

Oscar winners McConaughey and Hathaway add emotional heft to their embattled astronauts, wringing out tears after Amelia sternly warns Cooper: "You might have to choose between seeing your children again and saving the human race."

A couple of dense, wordy philosophical discussions about gravity and love orbit the moon of unintentional hilarity but thankfully, Nolan avoids the crash and burn in the nick of time.

Rating: 7.5/10 

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SAY WHEN (15, 99 mins)

Drama/Romance/Comedy. Keira Knightley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sam Rockwell, Mark Webber, Ellie Kemper, Jeff Garlin, Gretchen Mol, Eric Riedmann. Director: Lynn Shelton.Released: November 7 (UK & Ireland)

Writer-director Lynn Shelton came to the fore with her 2009 bro-mantic comedy Humpday about two straight male friends, who drunkenly agree to have sex with each other on film for an art project.

The acutely observed and provocative tale of brotherly bonding in extremis laid the groundwork for Shelton's subsequent pithy surveys of the sexes in Your Sister's Sister and yesteryear's Touchy Feely.

Say When, her sixth feature, marks a concerted shift away from her low-budget indie roots towards glossier mainstream fare.

It's also her first film based on someone else's script - a gamble that doesn't pay off, sadly.

Screenwriter Andrea Seigel hinges her freewheeling narrative on a beautiful 28-year-old, who has no direction in her life and is content to wander aimlessly from one uneventful day to the next in the company of friends from school, who all seem to know where they are heading.

She's the least likeable and sympathetic character in the film, which poses an unsurmountable hurdle for Shelton, who has to convince us to care deeply about her lackadaisical and deceitful heroine.

The slacker in question is Megan (Keira Knightley), who has an impossibly patient and understanding boyfriend called Anthony (Mark Webber), and works for her father Ed (Jeff Garlin) by twirling a sign at the roadside.

At the wedding of best friend Allison (Ellie Kemper), Megan sidesteps a marriage proposal from Anthony and catches Ed in a clinch with a woman who certainly isn't her mother.

Shell-shocked by her vacuous world spinning off its axis, Megan heads to the grocery store for wedding reception supplies and ends up buying alcohol for disaffected 16-year-old Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her chums.

Charmed by the teenager's carefree attitude to life, Megan tells Anthony that she is heading out of town for a week to attend a seminar but really heads to Annika's house and crashes on the floor of her underage friend's bedroom.

The youngster's father, a divorce lawyer called Craig (Sam Rockwell), eventually allows Megan to stay in the film's first stretch of credibility.

"Please don't let this decision become bad parenting on my part," he warns Megan and, almost inevitably, there's a spark between the divorcee and his new house guest.

Fittingly, Say When lacks the same sense of propulsion and purpose as the hapless heroine.

Even the title sounds wishy-washy.

Knightley, Moretz and Rockwell barely scratch beneath the surface of their unlikely co-habitants, while Webber is wasted in a thankless supporting role as the nice guy, who anchors himself to a woman that clearly doesn't appreciate his many charms.

Their broadly sketched characters trade glancing verbal blows as the script meanders towards its inevitable and lacklustre moment of reckoning ::

Rating: 5/10

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THE SKELETON TWINS (15, 93 mins)

Comedy/Drama/Romance. Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Ty Burrell, Luke Wilson, Boyd Holbrook, Joanna Gleeson, Kathleen Rose Perkins. Director: Craig Johnson.Released: November 7 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)

Estranged siblings confront the demons of their tragic past in Craig Johnson's hilarious and heart-rending comedy about keeping it in the family, where 'it' includes suicide, deception and inappropriate sexual liaisons.

Co-written by Mark Heyman, The Skeleton Twins is a small, yet perfectly formed, character study blessed with eye-catching performances from Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader as the titular offspring, whose relationship has mouldered in the years since their father leapt off a bridge.

This unexplained death hangs over the film like a ghoulish spectre and provides the catalyst for the eventual disintegration of the characters' dysfunctional family.

Johnson's film confronts his protagonists' grief and guilt with sensitivity, tackling thorny issues of self-loathing and infidelity with a pleasing comedic edge to encourage us, as well as the characters, to giggle through the tears.

Laughter is the best medicine for the broken hearted and The Skeleton Twins dispenses a hearty dose including a colourful burst of Halloween fancy dress and a grin-inducing duet between the siblings to the strains of Starship's chart-topping 1987 anthem "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" taken from the film Mannequin.

Dental hygienist Maggie Dean (Wiig) receives a telephone call from a hospital in Los Angeles.

Her brother Milo (Hader) is recovering after a failed attempt to slit his wrists in the bath.

Maggie collects Milo and spirits her brother back to their New York hometown where she lives with her outdoorsy husband Lance (Luke Wilson), who is looking forward to raising a family.

"I can't wait to be the creepy gay uncle!" grins Milo impishly.

He recuperates by revisiting old haunts including the bookshop where his high school English teacher Rich (Ty Burrell) now works.

Rich had a sexual relationship with Milo when he was 15 and there is still a palpable spark of attraction between the men.

While Milo wrestles with his feelings, he provides emotional support to Maggie - "a restless housewife with whore-like tendencies" - who seems determined to self-destruct her marriage by sleeping with her handsome scuba diving instructor (Boyd Holbrook).

The Skeleton Twins in galvanised by the electrifying on-screen chemistry of the lead actors.

Hader is particularly captivating in a multi-faceted role that requires him to reveal the chinks of regret and despair behind the twinkly facade of his acerbic court jester.

A fractious exchange between the siblings and their neglectful New Age mom (Joanna Gleeson) doesn't ring entirely true but it's a simple and effective method of explaining Maggie's reluctance to have children of her own.

Johnson deftly navigates the film's choppy emotional waters and doesn't pretend for a moment that his characters' woes can be salved in 90 minutes.

Indeed, some wounds are so deep and raw, they will never heal.

Rating: 7.5/10

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SET FIRE TO THE STARS (15, 97 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)

Shot in black and white and accompanied by an original score by Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals, Set Fire To The Stars is a semi-biographical drama set during a week in the 1950s when Dylan Thomas (Celyn Jones) was poised to deliver a series of readings in America.

Flanked by Harvard graduate John Malcolm Brinnin (Elijah Wood), the poet and ardent admirer who wooed Thomas across the Atlantic, the Welsh icon is the perfect hell raiser in new surroundings and poor Brinnin struggles to keep his hero sober to meet the packed schedule of speaking engagements.

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THE NOVEMBER MAN (15, 108 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)

CIA officer Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan), who is codenamed The November Man, is involved in a mission with his partner and protege David Mason (Luke Bracey) to protect a US Ambassador in Montenegro.

Mason disobeys a direct order and a child is killed in the crossfire.

The tragic incident convinces Devereaux to retire from the spy game and to relocate to Switzerland, where he opens a coffee shop and attempts to forget about his covert past.

Six years later, Devereaux's old boss John Hanley (Bill Smitrovich) makes contact with an urgent job. Natalia Ulanova (Mediha Musliovic), a CIA operative who is deep undercover in Russia and working as an aide to President General Arkady Fedorov (Lazar Ristovski), has evidence that links Fedorov to war crimes.

Hanley needs Devereaux to extract Ulanova and move her to a safe house, where she will be safe to record her testimony against the president. Devereaux agrees to return to his former life but the mission goes horribly wrong and The November Man is compelled to fight for his life on foreign soil.

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LEVIATHAN (15, 141 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)

Andrey Zvyagintsev and co-writer Oleg Negin collected the coveted Best Screenplay prize at the 2014 Cannes Film festival for this masterful drama charting the personal costs of political corruption in modern Russia.

Car mechanic Kolia (Alexei Serebriakov) lives on the picturesque waterfront with his second wife Lilya (Elena Lyadova) and teenage son Roma (Sergey Pokhodaev).

Their home is situated on prime real estate coveted by the mayor Vadim (Roman Madyanov).

The corrupt politician uses his power and influence to bully Kolia into selling the land for a pittance or suffer the consequences.

The doting family man is unmoved and he joins forces with his old army comrade, Dimitri (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), who is now a high-flying Moscow lawyer, to uncover incriminating evidence about the mayor and his practises. The subsequent battle of words and wits escalates out of control and Kolia realises when it is too late that he is a pawn in a bigger game of trial and retribution.

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THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS (12A, 113 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)

In 2005, well respected singer-songwriter Edwyn Collins suffered a massive stroke that hospitalised him for six months.

When he finally returned home, his vocabulary was limited to just a few words, including the name of his wife and manager, Grace Maxwell, and the phrase "the possibilities are endless".

Filmmakers Edward Lovelace and James Hall chart Collins' slow and steady rehabilitation in this revealing documentary, which reflects on the singer-songwriter's initial confusion and frustration, as he came to terms with his situation and the long, winding road to performing his old songs again with the unstinting support of his wife and family.

Lovelace and Hall intersperse their revealing footage with dramatisations of Collins' romance with Maxwell, casting the singer's son William as his old man.

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THE REMAINING (15, 88 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK, selected cinemas)

Casey La Scala directs this horror about a group of survivors of Judgment Day, who seek sanctuary in a church as the rest of humanity is hunted by winged demons.

Skylar (Alexa Vega) and Dan (Bryan Dechart) are partway through their nuptials when hell literally breaks loose on earth.

The newlyweds escape the carnage and head for the nearest place of worship, where they find momentary solace in the company of sweethearts Allison (Italia Ricci) and Jack (Shaun Sipos), videographer Tommy (Johnny Pacar) and a young woman called Sam (Liz E Morgan).

Terrified of what awaits them outside, the sextet huddle for warmth inside the church and rake over past sins, questioning the strength of their faith in the face of the apocalypse.

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JOURNEY TO LE MANS (PG, 94 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK, selected cinemas)

Le Mans is considered one of the most physically and mentally demanding races on earth: a 24-hour test of nerve, speed and skill that pushes competitors to the brink of exhaustion.

The small British privateer team of Jota Sport has taken part in the event on eight occasions and fallen before the exhilarating final lap.

In this documentary narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart, the close-knit crew of Jota Sport head for the start line to face their nemesis again, determined that they will tame the beast and disprove the critics, who have dismissed them as battle-scarred underdogs.

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THE CASE AGAINST 8 (Certificate TBC, 109 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK, selected cinemas)

In November 2008, the state of California passed Proposition 8 - an amendment to the state's constitution, which banned same-sex marriages.

California Supreme Court subsequently ruled that Prop 8 was constitutional, sparking fierce debate across the state and the whole of America.

In this fascinating documentary co-directed by Ryan White and Ben Cotner, which was five years in the making, two gay couples - Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, and Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami - challenge this ruling and launch a historic case to overturn California's ban by taking the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the US Supreme Court.

Supported by the powerhouse legal team of David Boies and Ted Olson, the couples and their families are caught in the eye of a media storm as politicians from both sides of the debate clamour for airtime to share their opinions.

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ALGORITHMS (U, 100 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK, selected cinemas)

Ian McDonald directs this sporting documentary about a group of boys who overcome adversity to become champions in their field.

The film starts just before the World Junior Blind Chess Championship in Sweden in 2009 and follows three boys from different parts of India, who dream of becoming chess masters.

Established talent Darpan Inani from Baroda, rising star Sai Krishna ST from Chennai and promising newcomer Anant Kumar Nayak from Bhubaneswar take inspiration from blind player turned pioneer Charudatta Jadhav to strengthen India's position on the global stage, culminating in their participation in the subsequent World Junior Blind Chess Championship in Greece in 2011.

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SACRO GRA (15, 93 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK, selected cinemas)

Almost three years in the making, Gianfranco Rosi's labour of love is the first documentary to win the top prize, the Golden Lion, at the annual Venice Film Festival.

Sacro GRA is a portrait of the people who live along the Grande Raccordo Anulare, the 43-mile long ring road around Rome.

These subjects include traditional eel fisherman Cesare, who fears his time on the Tiber River is coming to an end; emergency medical services worker Roberto, who cares for his elderly mother; scientist Francesco, who is documenting the damage inflicted by red palm weevil on the local vegetation; and father Paolo and his daughter Amelia, who have fallen on hard times and relocate to a housing block where they can spy on the neighbours.

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ONE ROGUE REPORTER (Certificate TBC, 55 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK, selected cinemas)

Expanded from Rich Peppiatt's hour-long stage show at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this satirical documentary co-directed by Tom Jenkinson follows "recovering tabloid hack" Peppiatt as he atones for past sins by turning the tables on newspaper bosses in the aftermath of the phone hacking scandal.

Using the skills he honed on Fleet Street, the self-confessed red top renegade holds to account the press barons who peddle sex, lies and fear to the masses, targeting among others former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie and Daily Mail chief Paul Dacre.

The film includes interviews from John Bishop, Steve Coogan, Hugh Grant, philosopher AC Grayling and former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

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PLAYTIME (U, 115 mins)

Released: November 7 (UK, selected cinemas)

A reissue of Jacques Tati's celebrated 1967 film, his fourth feature in which he reprises his role as the easily bamboozled Monsieur Hulot.

Playtime comprises six vignettes in which Hulot occasionally crosses paths with a young American tourist called Barbara (Barbara Dennek), who is visiting France with her companion (Jacqueline Lecomte) and a tour group of predominantly middle-aged women.

They first intersect at a trade exhibition of the latest gadgets such as a broom fitted with headlights.

Hulot heads off to meet an old friend and enjoy a meal with his coterie before giving Barbara two small mementoes to remind her of a magical stay in the French capital.

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REDIRECTED (Certificate TBC, 115 mins)

Released: November 13 (UK, selected cinemas)

Vinnie Jones stars in the British crime caper about four friends who are stranded in Eastern Europe after they bungle a heist. Best mates Ben (Anthony Strachan), John (Gil Darnell), Michael (Scot Williams) and Tim (Oliver Jackson) hatch a hare-brained scheme to hold up an illegal casino in London, steal the takings and board a flight to Malaysia, where they can spend the rest of their lives enjoying their ill-gotten gains in the sun.

The plan goes well until thugs in charge of the casino start shooting and Tim is forced to knock out a hysterical Michael with a fire extinguisher.

The four men board the plane bound for tropical climes but a volcano in Iceland erupts, spewing ash into the atmosphere, which forces the plane to divert to a post-soviet country with an unpronounceable name.

In this land of corrupt police, sex for sale and degradation, Ben, John, Michael and Tim must test the bonds of their friendship to breaking point to reach their Malaysian paradise in one piece.